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Smoke on the Mountain, Virginia’s official BBQ championship, will be held in downtown Galax on July 15-16.
Visitors will find downtown Galax transformed during this 7th annual professional cooking competition. A dozen or more professional teams from throughout the country vie for the championship, which earns them a spot in the next year’s Memphis in May World Championship Cooking Contest.
In addition, the grand champion of Smoke on the Mountain receives the coveted handmade banjo trophy crafted by Tommy Barr, which reflects Galax’s long heritage of traditional music.
Many of these teams have been featured on the Food Network and the Travel Channel for their award-winning recipes in categories such as “whole hog,” ribs, pork shoulder, sauce and the “Anything But” category for everything from beef to seafood.
Along with the professional barbeque smokers and rigs, the festival will feature a variety of street vendors and children’s activities. Bluegrass and old-time musicians will jam along the streets as visitors savor the fragrant clouds of hickory smoke and mouth-watering sizzle of slow-cooked pork.
This year’s event has a Virginia Tech theme. On July 15, Bud Foster, defensive coordinator for Virginia Tech football, and the Hokie Bird mascot will be signing autographs from 2 to 4 p.m.

TechTron, the Virginia Tech "robot" mascot, will be at Smoke on the Mountain on Saturday, beginning at noon. (Originally scheduled for Friday)

Also on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wells-Fargo will bring its stagecoach and horses to the event, for rides and photos. (New addition to schedule.)

Dance to live beach music under the stars both nights. Showtime Band will kick things off Friday at 6 p.m. with the Band of Oz following at 8 p.m. Saturday will feature Showtime at 1:30 p.m. followed by Craig Woolard Band at 3:30 p.m., the awards presentation at 6:30 p.m. and the grand finale with the smooth, soulful sounds of The Tams at 8 p.m.
Smoke on the Mountain is sponsored by the Twin County Regional Chamber of Commerce, The Galax Smokehouse and the City of Galax, with support from Wachovia/ Wells Fargo, American Electric Power, CenturyLink, Eden’s Distributors, Results of Galax, WBRF-FM, WWWJ-AM, Pepsi, Food City, Vaughan Furniture Company, Twin County Regional Healthcare, Andrews Farming, Barr’s Fiddle Shop, Grayson National Bank, The Doctor’s Inn, Hall Foundation, Abilene Motor Express and Blue Ridge Crest LLC.